MEH...

My younger brother and his wife gave birth to their first child - my second niece last Saturday, the 15th of November. Big congratulations to them! I especially love the name they gave her as her initials spell out MEH! She is gonna be quite the character!!!!

Maldivian wins!!!

Well What do you know... Maldivian has won the Cox Plate! I blogged about this horse a while back when I first heard that there was a horse called "Maldivian". And then again when that awful accident he had. But he has come back against all odds and won!

Read about it here.

The Birthday Post

Last week I celebrated my birthday. I had cake with more candle on it than cake(yeah I am old!!) and I got a couple or recipe books from Dina for presents. I think that was her not quite subtle way of telling me that I should be doing all the cooking till my next birthday. To be fair I had expressed an interest in buying these particular books as they have recipes that could be made with just four ingredients. They are bestsellers in Australia. Go here to check them out.

I also got cake at work. It is part of the work culture to have cake on all employees' birthdays. And since I was fasting they were nice enough to schedule the get together for 6pm and most of them stayed behind on a Friday to celebrate with me. I am really liking this new job!

Dina and I went out for the obligatory birthday dinner during the weekend. We went to our favourite Indian restaurant on Sydney Road and just stuffed our faces. That always happens when we go out to eat. W e eat too much and then have to spend the rest of the night trying not to move too much in case we burst!

Anyways it was a lovely birthday and thanks to the internet, I got heaps of wishes from lots of people I might not have otherwise got wishes from. My parents and siblings and cousins also called me up. I haven't had that many phone calls in one day since god knows when. All in all, it was a very special birthday.

Baby Season

Looks like everyone is getting into the season. Either they are pregnant or they have already had a baby. I guess it is always this way. Babies are born all year round. But when your closest friends and family members are pregnant at the same time then that is something very special.

Dina and myself are expecting in February. My brother and his wife are expecting in November. And two of my closest friends are expecting. I am assuming they would have given birth by march at the latest.

One of my closest friend just got his son a week ago in India. Another very close friend also got a son two weeks ago here in Melbourne. So a heartfelt congratulations goes out to both of them their families and the new additions.

Hopefully someday soon we could all get together for a play date. hehehe.

A good year

It has been an eventful month, complete with ups and downs. Thankfully it ended on an up. Actually two ups. After months of looking I have finally landed a job. And a pretty good one at that too...

I forget how many interviews I have been to but it was many. And they were all over the place too. Most I had to travel for more than an hour to get to. Some were close by but not what I wanted or I wasn't what they wanted. Anyways about three weeks ago I got two good interviews. They were close by and they were exactly what I wanted. One of them however had hours starting from 2 in the afternoon and finishing at 10 at night. The other was normal hours but was a new role and they had not had any qualified people there before. Needless to say I did not think I would get that one as I had no experience whatsoever. So I was really looking forward to getting the other job.

Imagine my surprise when I actually got the new role. I had to ask twice just to see whether they hadn't made a mistake. I was very gobsmacked for a while there. Anyways last week was my first week at a full time job in a long long time. And it was very exciting. the place is very nice and I can get there in half an hour. The people are also very friendly and the work culture there is out of sight. Its all based on the honour system so that there are no sign in sheets or time cards. They have drinks every Friday afternoon. And at the moment as the Olympics is on they have rented a widescreen plasma so they can watch the games. They are also having their own olympic games playing the Wii. I was put on the shooting team and failed abysmally.. Its not that easy to play the Wii without some practice... but it was a whole lot of fun!!

Workwise it is very challenging and there are a number of things that I have to look into and be on top of for the next few weeks.

Oh and the other up is that we are expecting someone new into our family by february! Its gonna be a good year!!

Sugar

My neighbours came back yesterday from holidays overseas. The lady came over to borrow some sugar since they did not have any at home.

I was quite surprised to learn that the guy used to take TEN teaspoons of sugar with his tea! TEN teaspoons!! There is probably more sugar than tea in that cup!And when I say, used to, I mean that he has cut down on it now. Yeah, he only uses SEVEN teaspoons nowadays...

Suddenly I am not feeling too guilty about the two teaspoons of sugar I used to have in my drinks...

The Right of Way

Couple of months back, I was waiting to cross a busy road. There was another guy who looked to be in his middle thirties waiting with me and he had his little daughter with him. She looked about five years old or so. Anyways we were all waiting for the green man to come and tell us that it was all right to cross.

When he did finally appear and we started to cross, this red car came screeching around the corner. The driver had apparantly run a red light and was heading straight at us. Of course I stopped dead in my tracks. But the other dude did not!

In fact, he actually started walking a bit faster, intending to cut across the path of the car! Thankfully the driver put on her brakes and screeched to a halt, inches away from the guy and his daughter. When the car stopped I resumed crossing as well. The guy said something to the driver in the wake of that he had the right of way and she didn't! She replied with a vehement "Fuck off'" and took off down the road and did not hear his retort of "Bitch!"

All right so maybe this guy did have the right of way and the driver did not! But she was in a car! If I had had a kid with me then I definitely would not have taken on a ton of moving iron and steel. I would hate to think of what would have happened if she had not managed to stop in time. It would not matter who had the right of way then!

But... but... but I had the right of way!

Sure you did! Hush now! The maggots need to feed... They have the right of way now...

Collision

I was trying to make myself some coffee this morning, when I happened to look out of the window. I saw a helicopter moving slowly but steadily on my left . Now this on its own was no remarkable occurrence. What made it remarkable was the aeroplane that was moving towards it from my right.

As if in a movie I suddenly heard trumpets and cymbals all coming together and building up to a crescendo, as the two machines slowly moved towards the inevitable collision, until suddenly with a final drumbeat the two passed each other and continued on their own merry way.

Of course the fact that both the helicopter and the aeroplane appeared to be the same size should have been a dead giveaway as to what was going to happen. But in my caffeine craving, half asleep state I had missed the fact that the aeroplane was further away than the helicopter.

With a sigh of disappointment relief, I went back to making my coffee.

Ladies and Gentlemen! Presenting... The Maldives!

First there was a horse called The Maldivian. And now its a music group from the United States of America. They seem to have been around for a while and I only stumbled onto a news story about them today which directed me to their website as well as their myspace page.



I have been listening to some of their songs on Myspace and they are not bad at all. They sound pretty good. The people who are organizing music shows in Maldives should look into getting these guys over there somehow. It would be worthwhile!

A Very Happy Birthday

to my sister.

I called her last night to wish her a happy birthday. I called my mom's mobile and my sis was in the other room. Being the lazy slob she is, she could not come to the phone! Instead she has the gall to tell me to call on her mobile! which of course I refused to do! My mom had to take the mobile to her room so she could talk to me.

And she would not accept the wish saying it wasn't yet midnight there! But it had already passed midnight here, darling, so it is your birthday here! Hope you have had a wonderful day. you deserve it.

Six months...

First post for 2008

2007 is over and done with. 2008 is just beginning. I don't feel any different yet so much has happened in the past year... it feels like more than a year has passed and at the same time... time has stood still...

I have stopped working and started studying again in the hopes that it will lead to a better paying job. Something I could enjoy and still earn money doing so. My first exam was supposed to be today but I postponed it cos I wasn't feeling particularly confident. Both my exams are on for next week now and I am working towards getting more knowledgeable.

I started up three new blogs last year and I have been doing pretty good with them too (I think). Sure one of the blogs still has just one post but the other two I have managed to update a lot. Khuscentinel is easy to update cos most of the things I am posting are stuff I find while I surf the Internets. Khuscensations require a lot more time and commitment cos I need to do a little research sometimes.

And this blog? I was going to keep it for just personal updates and personally I have been procrastinating a fair bit. Though I am going to try a bit harder this year on working towards some of my goals.

Keep watching this space.